To: Ben, of Shaundakul

I need you to create a staff for me and it's going to be hard at the outset, so brace yourself. Or at least, it's going to be hard to get ahold of and do right; it needs to be made in a specific way, in order to contain the focus, which is going to be strongly ailgned with another plane. I've got an idea of what it's going to be though, so here's the instructions;

I need the staff made of ironwood or yew. Yes, ironwood - yew if you can't find any swiftly. It's the only thing I can think of that will be able to contain the locus of the staff. If you carve it of ironwood, I need two notches around the end that's going to hold the locus; if you carve it out of yew, I'm going to need four.

It needs to be carved straight, approximately five to six foot in length (I'm around five three, five four with boots on), and it needs to have a crook at the end so I can tie the focus to it. We'll figure something out about how exactly to mount the thing but I will tie the stupid thing on with bootlaces if I have to. The point is, the cradle should cover most of the locus in a circle. It doesn't have to close but it has to cover most of the circumference. Polish it smooth because I'm going to have to mark on it afterwards.

Honestly I don't care how pretty it looks, it needs to work and I need it very, very quickly.

You mentioned Iron Wood, and difficulty, so I'll pass this along to Jon, though it's best you resend this yourself with his name in place of mine. He's a master carpenter, this will be a breeze for him - Not to mention he's an oathtaker, so he can actually harvest and work the ironwood.

The price the druid is asking for either yew or ironwood is too high. You can still work with Yew? As I said, as long as you craft to the specifications, it should be fine. I'll figure out some way to make it work.

There's no way I'm paying someone for something just to have them keep it after it's finished. That's thievery. And I should know.